BlackBerry QNX SDP 7.0 released

QNX Software Development Platform (SDP 7.0) includes the next generation 64-bit QNX Neutrino RTOS and the award-winning QNX Momentics Tool Suite. It provides a comprehensive, multi-level, policy-driven security model incorporating best-in-class security technologies from BlackBerry, which help guard against system malfunctions, malware and cyber security breaches. Building on existing certifications including ISO 26262, IEC 61508 and IEC 62304, QNX SDP 7.0 also brings a proven safety pedigree. Various features, including: microkernel architecture, file encryption, adaptive time partitioning, and high availability framework, make QNX SDP 7.0 the most advanced and secure embedded OS developed for use in all safety and mission critical applications.

That’s an incredible amount of marketing speak for such a short paragraph, and sadly, the official press release isn’t much better. QNX let go of what small enthusiast support among hobbyists it had almost a decade ago, and at this point it’s so buzzworded up I barely recognise it anymore.

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In 6.2 they added better graphic support (say, better than vesa) but started to squish out free functionalities to pack them into BSPs. In 6.3 they changed the UI skin to resemble something like, well, forget about it. I not even tried 6.4…

Those were mostly technical termsm and only a few were irrelevant like microkernel, but QNX is “the most advanced and secure embedded OS developed for use in all safety and mission critical applications”.

But, a bit of hobbyist love would be nice. I guess they feel they already got it made by practically being mandatory in all modern cars.

…but QNX is “the most advanced and secure embedded OS developed for use in all safety and mission critical applications.” [/q] So sayeth the QNX marketing department.

[q]I guess they feel they already got it made by practically being mandatory in all modern cars.

That kind of complacency cost them the enterprise smartphone market, with Apple cleaning BlackBerry’s clock first, later to be joined by Android. It would cost them in the automotive sector, too.

BlackBerry doesn’t seem to be making that same mistake again. They opened an Autonomous Vehicle Innovation Centre in Ontario, CA. They’ve received approved to test self-driving cars on public roads in Canada. They’ve demonstrated a self-driving Lincoln MKZ running QNX software on a test track at CES.

That said, they are facing a tsunami of competition from monied companies like Apple, Google, and Intel. Apple and Google want to extend their footprints into the automotive sector, offering greater integration with their consumer products and services, including music and apps. Apple already hired Dan Dodge, the founder and CEO of QNX, for its â€˜Project Titanâ€™ Apple Car project, as well as poaching a couple dozen engineers from Blackberry. Google sure isn’t developing their self-driving cars using QNX as the OS.

Intel sees it as a way to put more Intel silicon into the lucrative automotive market, leveraging it’s Wind River Systems subsidiary’s VxWORKS RTOS, which already has captured a huge portion of the same market that QNX fights in.

I don’t pretend to know how it will all come out, but if I were the CEO of BlackBerry, I would sell the name, which is an albatross after years of well-publicized financial troubles, as well as any vestiges of the smartphone and back-office support infrastructure business. I’d return the name of QNX to the forefront as the company name and chart out a course in which QNX OS is the company’s only focus.

Those were mostly technical termsm and only a few were irrelevant like microkernel, but QNX is “the most advanced and secure embedded OS developed for use in all safety and mission critical applications”.

[/q]

For QNX being a microkernel is fundamental and part of what makes it special, I’d not call it irrelevant. The only real marketing fluff is the examples of what the security helps against IMHO, not exactly wrong though.

[q]

But, a bit of hobbyist love would be nice. I guess they feel they already got it made by practically being mandatory in all modern cars.

By merit, most that have tried competing solutions later turned to QNX.

Obviously their market share is enough to grow and expand. Oh, wait, haven’t they been bought by Harman, then Blackberry ? You can their user base increase if only through corporate licensing ? Have they some academic licensuing scheme at least ?

I mean, how new people will come to try QNX and get used enough to it to make a living out of it ? By applying for maintenance of an old code base ? I remember when Microsoft or National Instruments almost offers copies to get people addicted to their products. Guess who are used the most ?

I think QNX won’t last much face to Zephyr, RTEMS or M3 once they had matured enough. The trend is clearly not into too much proprietary technologies. See what happens to Imagination Technologies that kept their IPs behind walls, when your user base isn’t large enough, a simple push can make you fall.